Netherlands named 6th in talent competitiveness

The Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) named the Netherlands 6th overall out of 103 the countries in its rankings for the year. The report identified the Dutch as being very capable of attracting, developing, and keeping talent in the country.

The Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI), a report which was published for the first time in 2013 by INSEAD Business School, the Human Capital Leadership Institute, and Adecco Group, named the Netherlands 6th overall in its rankings for the year. The report is one of a number of reports that INSEAD has been involved in developing, including the Global Innovation Index, which ranked the Netherlands as 4th, and the Global Information Technology Index.

The GTCI focuses on the more human side of global competitiveness between countries, identifying talented people as the most critical resource that national economies can make use of in order to improve their competitive and innovative standings at a sustainable rate. It took into account the political and economic environment in a country, as well as the country’s ability to attract, develop, and keep talent within its borders.

“Talent” was framed as an input-output model in the GTCI. The report defined the efforts of countries to produce and get talent as the input and the skills that are available as the output. Assessing both the input and the output and combining these has provided the GTCI with a compiled list of the most competitive countries in terms of talent in the world.

The Netherlands ranks 6th

Out of the 103 countries that were evaluated, the Netherlands ranked 6th, one spot lower than in the last year's report. While the input of the Netherlands was quite high (ranked 4th overall), the output was lower, in 10th position overall, which resulted in a contrasted performance. The report identified the Dutch as being very capable of attracting, developing, and keeping talent in the country, but pointed out that the level of performance in areas such as labour market flexibility and market and business landscapes was lower.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita for the Netherlands is $42,193.69. With a population of 16.71 million people, the GDP for the country totalled 773.12 billion US dollars.

The Netherlands scored in the top 5 overall in a number of categories such as the intensity of local competition (1), technical/vocational education enrolment (1), reliance and professional management (3), use of virtual networks (3), innovation output (3), female parliamentarians (4), retention (5), and sustainability (5).

Top 10

The top 10 list of the GTCI which ranked 103 nations in its first edition is as follows:

Switzerland

Singapore

Denmark

Sweden

Luxembourg

Netherlands

United Kingdom

Finland

United States

Iceland

The report concluded that there are three main factors that affect the level of talent competitiveness among countries. These include an effective strategy to attract new talent, largely based on a strong educational system (like in the Netherlands), openness to immigration (like in the US, Canada, and Australia), and developing human capital that is in high demand by specialising in fields that neighbouring countries may lack.